The first Austronesian settlers, the Lapita people, arrived around 826 B.C.

European explorers began arriving from 1616 when the Dutch first discovered the island. James Cook called it the Friendly Island because the chiefs welcomed him to their festivities (although biographers have later reckoned they still wanted to eat him).

From 1845 the warrior Taufa-ahau decided that Tonga should have a constitutional monarchy like Britain. It became Britain’s ‘protected state’ in 1900, but was allowed to keep its monarchy, the only Pacific island to do so.

In 1970 Tonga stopped being a protected state and joined the Commonwealth, still keeping its own monarchy!